Policies & Guidelines

The House of Delegates of the American Medical Association (AMA) laid out guidelines for patient navigator programs during their November 2011 Interim Meeting. The aim is to ensure that patient navigators “enhance, rather than undermine, the delivery of high-quality patient care,” the resolution states.
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Medical practices in the United States spend much more money and time dealing with third-party payers than do Canadian practices, according to a recent report (Morra D, et al. Health Aff. 2011;30:1443-1450).
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On July 29, 2011, a 3-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit invalidated some patents held by Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah Research Foundation for methods of analyzing individuals’ gene sequences for the presence of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, but upheld other related patents in a reversal of a lower court ruling.
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The population of cancer survivors is rapidly growing. More than 12 million Americans are alive after a cancer diagnosis: most are living at least 5 years and 16% are alive 20 years after diagnosis.
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In September 2011, the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) issued a new report, “AACR Cancer Progress Report 2011” on the current state of cancer research and the implications of recent cuts in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
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The decision this month (October 2011) by the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) to recommend against a prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based screening for prostate cancer in healthy men1 has caused quite a stir both in and outside of medical circles, reminding many people of the task force’s 2009 recommendation against routine breast cancer screenings for women under age 50 years.
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ACOs are believed to hold the potential for addressing variation in quality and costs of cancer care, but their impact will depend on buy-in and leadership among oncologists, according to David Miller, MD, MPH, a urologic surgeon and health services researcher at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He addressed this topic during the recent annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists.
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On August 2, 2011, President Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 into law, the result of a month-long partisan battle over raising the federal debt ceiling and, in the long-term, reducing the federal deficit (Budget ControlAct of 2011. Pub. L. No. 112-25).
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